Method and Apparatus for Reporting Beam Measurement Result

This application is a U.S. national phase of International Application No. PCT/CN2022/103486, filed Jul. 1, 2022, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of wireless communication technologies, and more particularly to a method and a device for reporting a beam measurement result.

In the related art, beam measurement of candidate cells and reporting the beam measurement result are supported, so as to determine whether to switch a cell based on the beam measurement result. For reporting of the beam measurement result, the terminal device will perform beam measurement on all candidate cells and report the beam measurement results of all candidate cells, so that the network device may understand the network state and make a switching decision.

However, in this mode, the terminal device needs to frequently report the beam measurement result of each candidate cell, which is not conducive to energy saving of the terminal device and will occupy more uplink resources. This is a problem that needs to be solved urgently.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for reporting a beam measurement result, the method is performed by a terminal device and includes: reporting the beam measurement result of a specific candidate cell to a network device, in which the specific candidate cell is determined by the terminal device from candidate cells.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides another method for reporting a beam measurement result, the method is performed by a network device and includes: receiving the beam measurement result of a specific candidate cell reported by a terminal device, in which the specific candidate cell is determined by the terminal device from candidate cells.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a terminal, which includes a processor and a memory executable by the processor. The processor is configured to execute the method described in the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network device, which includes a processor and a memory executable by the processor. The processor is configured to the method described in the second aspect.

To facilitate understanding of the present disclosure, some concepts involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure are briefly introduced here.

The information of the beam may be identified by index information. Optionally, the index information may correspond to a resource identifier configuring a terminal device, for example, the index information may correspond to an ID or a resource of a configured channel status information reference signal (CSI-RS), or may correspond to an ID or a resource of a configured uplink sounding reference signal (SRS). Optionally, the index information may also be index information explicitly or implicitly carried by a signal or channel carried by the beam, for example, the index information may be index information of the beam indicated by a synchronization signal or a broadcast channel sent by the beam.

Alternatively, the identity of the beam information includes the absolute index of the beam, the relative index of the beam, the logical index of the beam, the index of the antenna port corresponding to the beam, the index of the antenna port group corresponding to the beam, the time index of the downlink synchronization signal block, the beam pair link (BPL) information, the transmit parameter (Txparameter) corresponding to the beam, the receive parameter (Rx parameter) corresponding to the beam, the transmit weight corresponding to the beam, the weight vector, the weight matrix, the receive weight corresponding to the beam, or indexes thereof, the transmit codebook corresponding to the beam, the receive codebook corresponding to the beam, or indexes thereof.

The reference signal may include, for example, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a synchronization signal block (SSB), and a sounding reference signal (SRS). Correspondingly, the reference signal resource may include a CSI-RS resource, an SSB resource, and an SRS resource.

It should be noted that the SSB may also be called synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block), and the corresponding SSB resource may also be called synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block resource (SS/PBCH block resource), which may be abbreviated as SSB resource.

In order to distinguish different reference signal resources, each reference signal resource may correspond to a reference signal resource identifier, for example, a CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI), an SSB resource indicator (SSBRI), or an SRS resource index (SRI).

The SSB resource identifier may also be called the SSB identifier (SSB index).

The terminal device may receive the reference signal based on the plurality of reference signal resources to perform channel measurement. The terminal device may report a set of beam measurement results in the CSI report, and this set of beam measurement results may be obtained by performing channel measurement based on the reference signal received from one of the plurality of reference signal resources, and the result of the channel measurement performed by the terminal device based on the reference signal received from this reference signal resource is optimal.

Therefore, during the channel measurement of the terminal device, the number of reference signal resources and the number of ports in each reference signal resource will affect the complexity of CSI estimation performed by the terminal device.

In addition, in the configuration signaling of the reference signal resource, different time domain behaviors may be indicated by different time domain behavior parameters. As an example but not a limitation, the time domain behavior may be periodic, semi-persistent (SP) and aperiodic (AP).

It should be noted that the cell may be an area within the coverage range of the wireless network of the network device. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, different cells may correspond to different network devices. For example, the network device in cell #and the network device in cell #may be different network devices, such as a base station. That is to say, cell #and cell #may be managed by different base stations. In this case, it may be said that cell #and cell #do not share a station, or in other words, belong to different stations. The network device in cell #and the network device in cell #may also be different radio frequency processing units of the same base station, for example, a radio remote unit (RRU). That is to say, cell #and cell #may be managed by the same base station, have the same baseband processing unit and intermediate frequency processing unit, but have different radio frequency processing units. The present disclosure does not specifically limit this.

In order to better understand the method and device for reporting a beam measurement result according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the communication system to which the embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable is first described below.

Referring to,is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The communication system may include, but is not limited to, a network device and a terminal device. The number and form of devices shown inare only used as examples and do not constitute a limitation on the embodiments of the present disclosure. In actual applications, there may be two or more network devices and two or more terminal devices. The communication systemshown inincludes, for example, one network deviceand one terminal device.

It should be noted that the technical solution of an embodiment of the present disclosure may be applied to various communication systems. For example: a long term evolution (LTE) system, a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a 5G new radio (NR) system, or other future new mobile communication systems. It should also be noted that the sidelink in an embodiment of the present disclosure may also be called a side link or a direct link.

The network devicein an embodiment of the present disclosure is an entity on the network side for transmitting or receiving signals. For example, the network devicemay be an evolved NodeB (eNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in an NR system, a base station in other future mobile communication systems, or an access node in a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system. The embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the base station. The base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU), in which the CU may also be referred to as a control unit. The CU-DU structure may be used to split the base station, such as the protocol layer of the base station, and the functions of some protocol layers are placed in the CU for centralized control, and the functions of the remaining part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, and the DU is centrally controlled by the CU.

The terminal devicein an embodiment of the present disclosure is an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, such as a mobile phone. The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal device (terminal), user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal device (MT), etc. The terminal device may be a car with communication function, a smart car, a mobile phone, a wearable device, a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a wireless terminal device in self-driving, a wireless terminal device in remote medical surgery, a wireless terminal device in smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in smart city, a wireless terminal device in smart home, etc. An embodiment of the present disclosure does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal device.

It may be understood that the communication system described in an embodiment of the present disclosure is for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solution of an embodiment of the present disclosure, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solution according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. A person skilled in the art may know that, with the evolution of the system architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is also applicable to similar technical problems.

The concept of L1/L2-centric inter-cell mobility was introduced in Release 17 (Rel-17). There are two scenarios: mTRP-like mode scenario and L1/L2 mobility scenario. The former does not involve switching of serving cells, while the latter involves switching of serving cells. Rel-17 only discusses the mTRP-like mode case, i.e., inter-cell beam management in Rel-17. In Release 18 (Rel-18) Mobility enhancement, it is hoped that L1/L2 mobility (L1/L2 based inter-cell mobility) may be supported.

In the L1/L2 based inter-cell mobility to be discussed in Release 18, it is hoped that the decision on whether to switch should be made based on the LI measurement results (i.e., the beam measurement result), so it is necessary to consider supporting beam measurement of neighboring cells (candidate cells) and reporting of the beam measurement result.

In the related art, for reporting of the beam measurement result, the terminal device reports the beam measurement results of all candidate cells after performing beam measurement on the candidate cells, respectively, so that the network device may understand the network state and make a switching decision. However, the terminal device needs to frequently report the beam measurement results of the candidate cells, which is not conducive to energy saving of the terminal device and will occupy more uplink resources.

Based on this, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for reporting the beam measurement result. On the basis that the network device may obtain the network state timely and make a switching decision timely based on the network state, it may save the power consumption of the terminal device and may also reduce the resource overhead caused by frequent reporting of beam measurement results.

The method and device for reporting a beam measurement result according to the present disclosure are described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Referring to,is a flowchart of a method for reporting the beam measurement result according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

A shown in, the method is performed by a terminal device and may include but is not limited to the following steps.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device. There may be multiple implementations. For example, in one implementation, the terminal device determines a specific candidate cell from one or more candidate cells, and then obtains the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell, and then reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device; in another implementation, the terminal device determines a specific candidate cell from one or more candidate cells, and obtains the beam measurement results of the candidate cells, and then only reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device; in yet another implementation, the terminal device obtains the beam measurement results of one or more candidate cells, and then determines the specific candidate cell based on the beam measurement results of the one or more candidate cells, and then reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device; and so on. The embodiments of the present disclosure do not limit it.

The terminal device obtains the beam measurement results of the candidate cells, in which the terminal device may obtain the beam measurement results of one or more candidate cells.

It may be understood that there may be one or more candidate cells. When there is one candidate cell, the terminal device may perform beam measurement on the candidate cell and obtain the beam measurement result of the candidate cell; when there are a plurality of candidate cells, the terminal device may perform beam measurement on the plurality of candidate cells and obtain the beam measurement result of each candidate cell.

Exemplarily, as shown in, the terminal device may perform beam measurement on the plurality of candidate cells, for example, beam measurement on candidate cell. The terminal device performs beam measurement on each candidate cell and obtains a beam measurement result of each candidate cell.

In a possible implementation, the terminal device performs beam measurement on one or more candidate cells, and after obtaining the beam measurement result of each candidate cell, a specific candidate cell may be determined from the candidate cells based on the beam measurement result.

The terminal device obtains the beam measurement result of the candidate cell and may determine that the candidate cell whose beam measurement result meets specific conditions is a specific candidate cell based on the indication of the network device or protocol agreement.

Exemplarily, the terminal device may determine a specific candidate cell based on the beam measurement result of the candidate cell according to the indication of the network device, and the network device may send a reporting configuration to the terminal device, in which the reporting configuration is used to indicate a reporting type based on an event. The terminal device reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device, the terminal device may report the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell that satisfies the event to the network device.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an event includes at least one of:

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case that the terminal device determines that a certain candidate cell satisfies Event 1, the terminal device determines that the candidate cell is the specific candidate cell, and reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device. That is, in the case that it is determined that the measurement result of the best beam of the candidate cells>the measurement result of the best beam of the serving cells+the first offset value offset1, the candidate cell is determined to be the specific candidate cell, and the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell is reported to the network device.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case that the terminal device determines that a certain candidate cell satisfies Event2, the terminal device determines that the candidate cell is the specific candidate cell, and reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device. That is, in a case that it is determined that the average value of the beam measurement results of the candidate cells>the average value of the beam measurement results of the serving cells+the second offset value offset2, the candidate cell is determined to be the specific candidate cell, and the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell is reported to the network device.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in a case that the terminal device determines that a certain candidate cell satisfies Event 3, the terminal device determines that the candidate cell is the specific candidate cell, and reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device. That is, in a case that it is determined that the average value or the maximum value of the beam measurement results of the candidate cells is greater than a threshold, the candidate cell is determined to be the specific candidate cell, and the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell is reported to the network device.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case that the terminal device determines that a certain candidate cell satisfies Event 4, the terminal device determines that the candidate cell is the specific candidate cell, and reports the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device. That is, in the case that first N best measurement results are the measurement results of the candidate cells, and N is a positive integer, the candidate cell is determined to be the specific candidate cell, and the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell is reported to the network device.

It should be noted that the above embodiments are not exhaustive but are only illustrations of some embodiments, and the above embodiments may be implemented individually or in combination. The above embodiments are only for illustration and are not intended to be specific limitations on the protection scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In another possible implementation, the network device sends indication information to the terminal device, in which the indication information is used to indicate the specific candidate cell. Thus, the terminal device receives the indication information sent by the network device and may determine the specific candidate cell based on the indication information, and then obtain the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell, or obtain the beam measurement results of some or all candidate cells including the specific candidate cell, and report the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell to the network device.

The indication information may be medium access control control element (MAC CE) information, the MAC CE information is used to indicate activation of a specific candidate cell, or deactivation of a specific candidate cell, or to indicate measurement resources of the specific candidate cell associated with the reporting configuration.

For example, as shown in, a specific candidate cell that needs to be measured and reported is dynamically activated/deactivated via MAC CE information; in which Serving Cell ID is the serving cell ID, BWP ID is the Band width Part ID. Scorresponds to each candidate cell, and the corresponding relationship may be pre-configured or by default, such as corresponding to the size of the candidate cell ID. S=0 means the measurement is not needed, and the candidate cell does not need to be measured, otherwise it means measurement is needed. As shown in, R represents a reserved bit.

In an exemplary embodiment, the indication information of the network device may be that the network device sends MAC CE information to the terminal device, and dynamically activates or deactivates the measurement and reporting of the candidate cell via the MAC CE information, in which the activated candidate cell is the specific candidate cell that requires beam measurement and beam measurement result reporting.

In another exemplary embodiment, the indication information of the network device may be an MAC CE sent by the network device to the terminal device, in which the MAC CE indicates the association between the reporting configuration and the measurement resources, for example, the MAC CE configures the reference signal resource set of the specific candidate cell associated with the reporting configuration, so as to report the beam measurement result of the specific candidate cell according to the reporting configuration.